How can I resize a picture to 500 pixels for eBay?

TraySelect

I haven't ebay'd for a year and now find the photos I've tried to upload today are rejected by ebay. They need to be 'over 500 pixels wide'.

What software are ebayers using to convert iphone photos to what ebay will accept?

[I take photos on iphone 16 pro and tbh I would have expected the phone to do this conversion to save faffing about with using other software]

Exodi

That's very confusing, over 500 pixels wide isn't very wide, most phones for at least a decade have been taking pictures bigger than that!

Pictures taken on an iPhone 16 pro should certainly be at a higher resolution than that.

Check one of the pictures and let us know what the resolution is:

To check an iPhone picture's resolution, you can do this by: open the Photos app, select an image, and tap the "i" (info) icon or swipe up. The details will show the resolution, file size, and camera model.

The resolution will be in the format XXXX x XXXX (e.g. 3840 x 2160).

I would be extremely surprised if the width is below 500, I suspect it's likely something to do with the file format, where iPhone takes pictures HEIF, but this isn't always supported everywhere. You can change this by going to settings>Camera>Formats and select "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency" (though this change wouldn't alter pictures you've already taken).

If you don't want to retake the pictures, something as simple as opening the pictures in paint and saving them as .png and uploading them to eBay should work (assuming the issue is the format and not the resolution, despite whats eBays warning suggests).

TraySelect

incredibly helpful, thank you. 

the res of the photo ebay rejected is 4884x5712 so you're spot on.

I've changed the file format to 'most compatible' and will start again [I haven't listed on ebay since getting this phone]

Exodi

No problem, though I would recommend taking one picture to test rather than retake all of them and find out it still doesn't work! (Though I'm sure it will)

TraySelect

uh-oh - ebay's still flagging 'needs to over 500 pxls' with a test [res 5712x4284]. 

This has got to be something with the phone settings - yes?

Exodi

In my mind, it could either be the format or the resolution.

While you've changed the format, I would rule this out completely by saving it as .png and then uploading it.

There are various way to do this, you can google 'save as png iphone' to see.

Try upload it and see if it accepts it.

If it doesn't, we could try the resolution. While the resolution you stated should be within eBay's limits (I believe they allow up to 9000x9000) there's a possibility the resolution is too high (again despite what they say) or the file size is too large.

I'd resize the picture by 50%, and see if it accepts it. 5712x4284 is an extremely high resolution.

You might need an app to do this.

Of course before converting or resizing all of the images, test with one to make sure it works.

Also update what worked if people search this issue in the future.

flaneurs_lobster

TraySelect said:

uh-oh - ebay's still flagging 'needs to over 500 pxls' with a test [res 5712x4284]. 

This has got to be something with the phone settings - yes?

What's the size of the file you're trying to upload? eBay recommends res around 1600 x 1600 but it looks like the actual limit is a file size of 12MB. Apple's HEIC format should be fine.

GrubbyGirl_2

I take pics then email them all in one go to myself and when it sends it asks what resolution you want to send just select medium or low

TraySelect

thanks for all the replies.

@exodi I saved a test photo as .png and still ebay refused it [must be more than 500 pxl...]

@flaneurs_lobster - I reduce the file size to small when I email myself photos from my iphone. This comes out at 50-70kb [so small]. 

There's a twist to this saga now - when I upload a photo taken on my iphone16 pro *to the ebay app* on my iphone- no problem. Ebay accepts it for the listing.

So it's something with the iphone/macbook interface, and/or the macbook interface with ebay?

I haven't changed my laptop recently.

For 13 years + [like GrubbyGirl_2] I've taken always taken photos for ebay on my phone and then emailed them to myself, reduced size, for listing on ebay from my laptop. No problem doing this until now with the iphone 16 pro.

I've also gone through all of the options in System Settings [toggling on/off] in Settings>Camera on the phone but that's not resolved the problem. 

I'm still experimenting with the resolution [@exodi].

Using a third party app ToolsChimp to change the res of photos and uploading the ToolChimp photos to ebay does work. But the photos at 1600x1600 are not clear. 

Ebay accepts them but the listing doesn't look as sharp. Plus doing this - one photo at a time which is all ToolChimp allows - is a real pain and not sustainable if I'm to stay on ebay.

looking at all this to date ...  if this is a res issue, I need to put some time in over the weekend to find what res ebay accepts when I list from my laptop and how I can get that res without additional steps and faff. 

if it's something else, why can I list from my ebay phone app but not [same photos] from the laptop?

Exodi

Thanks for the above, it suggests it is the either resolution or fole size, but potentially for being too big (despite the warning suggesting the opposite).

You mentioned rmailing to yourself resizing as small, sorry its been a while since I used an iPhone but can't you do medium or large? I'd guess you're only slightly over the maximum.

Googling bulk resize shows a lot of options to do this in one go - do any of them work? 25%-50% should be enough.

RFW

You could try Chat-GPT. Upload the image and ask it to convert to the required pixels. 
One thing I occasionally do is just add a clear white background and centre the image to it, so you end up with a border, most of the marketplaces don't mind that and it preserves the resolution of the image.